My Left Hook

Daniel Day-lewis Didn't Just Learn How To Throw Punches For His Latest Movie -- He Became The Boxer.

January 12, 1998|By GLENN WHIPP Los Angeles Daily News

Daniel Day-Lewis is known for throwing himself into his roles. He pitched a tent in the forest to prepare for The Last of the Mohicans. He lived in a jail cell and ate prison rations to get in the proper frame of mind for In the Name of the Father. He wandered around New York wearing 1870s period garb and brandishing a cane for The Age of Innocence.

And, most famously, he learned to handle a paintbrush and a pen with his toes for his Oscar-winning portrayal of writer-painter Christy Brown in My Left Foot.

So when it came time to lay the groundwork for The Boxer, the movie that opened Friday, it was pretty much a given that the 40-year-old actor would begin training in the gym like a madman. But not even Jim Sheridan, who directed Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father and My Left Foot, was prepared for the intensity and fervor he witnessed.

``He got to the point with this film where I don't know how much further he can go,'' Sheridan says.

``People call him a chameleon, but that's not quite true,'' the director adds. ``Chameleons change quickly. For Daniel, it takes him quite a bit of time. He's more into the chemistry of the soul. He wants to change his soul into the soul of the character he's playing.''

For The Boxer, that required a mental transformation as well as the obvious physical alterations. Day-Lewis plays Danny Flynn, a once-promising boxer who returns to his Belfast neighborhood after serving 14 years in prison for his involvement with the Irish Republican Army. Danny wants to make a new life for himself, but his past _ both with the IRA and with an old flame, Maggie, played by Emily Watson _ continues to haunt him.

``Danny is a quiet man, a man who feels that he's thrown away a good portion of his life,'' Day-Lewis says. ``Now he just wants to set the record straight and do something with his life that has some value to it.''

Day-Lewis' obsessive attention to detail was apparent on the set in two ways. First, he took Danny's reticent nature to heart and rarely spoke to anyone. ``It was a few weeks before he even talked to me,'' Watson says. ``It was a little scary, but then it was pretty impressive, too. He's so focused on the work. I've never seen any actor with that kind of integrity.''

Or intensity. For the fight scenes, Day-Lewis began his training four years ago. Back then, he and Sheridan were talking about doing a story based on the life of Irish fighter Barry McGuigan, who won the world featherweight boxing championship and became a national hero. Sheridan and McGuigan were friends, and Sheridan thought the charismatic fighter's story was perfect for a film.

Day-Lewis loved the idea, if only because he was growing tired of soccer and bicycling and wanted a new sport to consume his physical energies. He began to train with McGuigan three years ago and completely fell in love _ Day-Lewis does nothing halfheartedly _ with boxing.

``I've never met anyone with such an insatiable appetite for learning,'' McGuigan says. ``He ate it, read it and slept it morning, noon and night. It got to the point where I was sick of watching the videotapes of the fights, but he kept at it.''

And he became quite good at it. McGuigan put Day-Lewis through an intensive training process that involved some 350 rounds of sparring (``And not with patsies,'' McGuigan emphasizes), as well as a rigorous daily regimen of calisthenics, skipping rope, stretching and heavy bag work.

``If he gave me another two months, I promise you he could take on any of the Top 10 middleweights in Britain and have a very good chance of beating them,'' McGuigan says.

Told of these comments, Day-Lewis bursts out laughing. For one thing, he's laid up on a sofa with a herniated disk in his back. And even if he were healthy, Day-Lewis isn't so sure he would want to hop in the ring with any boxer quite so proficient. ``Maybe numbers 60 through 80, but I don't think I'll be having a go at the Top 10,'' he says, smiling.

Sheridan was writing the script for The Boxer with longtime partner Terry George while they were shooting the movie, which meant they had to pretty much film the script chronologically. That proved problematic for Day-Lewis, who has three fight scenes in the movie. Rather than shooting them consecutively, Day-Lewis had to stay in fighting shape for the entire 16-week shoot, nearly going insane in the process.

``Typically you train and then there's the event and then you wind down,'' Day-Lewis says. ``Here I had no time to catch my breath. But . . . I think we accomplished what we set out to do.''

For Sheridan, that was making another movie about the IRA (his previous such offerings being In the Name of the Father and Some Mother's Son), this time focusing on a man who fights within the rules to right the wrongs of his country. Sheridan often has been criticized for his films' political content, and he expects to take some heat again for The Boxer.